The Washington Post has word that the U.S. Attorney's office in Rhode Island has stated there will be no federal charges following "a narrow and focused review of 38 Studios to see if any federal laws were broken, including bank fraud" in relation to the studio's financing and closure. They also note that the Rhode Island State Police are continuing to investigate whether any state laws were violated and that the state Economic Development Corp. has also hired a law firm to "investigate whether anyone might be held financially liable for the deal."

He definitely lied to some employees about paying their mortgages. And it wasn't a bold lie - he was trying to and meant to make good on it. He just failed miserably and didn't tell anyone while it was happening. It makes him a giant dickhead and may likely open him up to some civil suits (though it would open the company up to them, and the company has no assets, so...) but that's not necessarily something you can lock someone up for.

And it's really the only area someone can look at. The state made a stupid, high profile investment, and someone may get burned for that, but there's no evidence of criminal activity. And the guy running the show, with no experience, crashed and burned. Again, no surprises and no sign of anything criminal. People fail at business all the time. There's zero evidence Curt intended to fail, or had some gain through failure.

He just had no idea what he was doing, had even too little an idea to hire people that did have an idea, and ran something into the ground. It's at least half the American Dream.

Cutter wrote on Sep 28, 2012, 22:39:This simply isn't a blame game. Someone somewhere was responsible for fucking up and that person is likely Curt.

You say it isn't a blame game and then proceed immediately to blame Curt directly. It was a *high risk* investment on the part of the state government. The state government obviously wants to save face and not face the consequences of their greed that blinded them.

At the very least, someone lied about taking care of mortgages and moving expenses for the employees, you know, the folks that were assured their old houses were taken care of. It may not be a criminal matter (or it may), but it for damned sure is at least a civil matter. Some of those folks have been ruined financially, while Curt's day-to-day life doesn't appear to have been affected at all.

The cynical side of me says that nothing will be done, that Curt is rich enough to be one of the system's "good guys", and his employees will be considered to have brought this on themselves. I hope I'm wrong, but...

Your assertions that Curt's day to day life has been unaffected and that he is still rich are both wrong. This has been written about in great detail in the press...both from people who gloat about it and people who sympathize for him. He did an interview on ESPN (also his current employer) where he admitted that he was broke as well.

He screwed up, but portraying him as the rich guy that walked away untouched is not correct.

Way to pick out the unimportant part of the post. The employees were lied to. No ifs, ands, or buts. But by all means, lets focus on the side issue of whether my cynicism is justified.

Beamer wrote on Sep 29, 2012, 12:49:Yeah, I find it so weird that people blame Curt criminally. He was a shitty businessman. There's no crime against that. There's no sign of any crime. We've had this discussion repeatedly, and some people keep saying "throw him in jail" or make accusations of coke and hookers, yet they haven't pointed to one tiny shred of Curt being anything other than a shitty businessman that never should have had a loan.

But none of that is criminal. Stupidity isn't illegal.

Yeah. Quite frankly it would have been more shocking if this investment had actually paid off. I'm just amazed at how many people act like something extremely shady must have happened.

A software startup? Risky. Gaming startup? Very risky. MMO? ULTRA risky, and EXPENSIVE. You don't have to burn your fat stacks on hookers and blow to make that type of project fail. Hell, even very skilled and competent teams can fail at that.

A baseball player with no real experience? Almost guaranteed to fail. It's like giving some candy to a two year old, telling them not to eat it, and getting mad at them when they eat it. The two year old is just being a two year old, you're the idiot for giving them the candy in the first place and expecting them to actually exceed their qualifications.

Every time you preorder a game, you become part of the problem. Don't be part of the problem.

Yeah, I find it so weird that people blame Curt criminally. He was a shitty businessman. There's no crime against that. There's no sign of any crime. We've had this discussion repeatedly, and some people keep saying "throw him in jail" or make accusations of coke and hookers, yet they haven't pointed to one tiny shred of Curt being anything other than a shitty businessman that never should have had a loan.

Cutter wrote on Sep 28, 2012, 22:39:This simply isn't a blame game. Someone somewhere was responsible for fucking up and that person is likely Curt.

You say it isn't a blame game and then proceed immediately to blame Curt directly. It was a *high risk* investment on the part of the state government. The state government obviously wants to save face and not face the consequences of their greed that blinded them.

At the very least, someone lied about taking care of mortgages and moving expenses for the employees, you know, the folks that were assured their old houses were taken care of. It may not be a criminal matter (or it may), but it for damned sure is at least a civil matter. Some of those folks have been ruined financially, while Curt's day-to-day life doesn't appear to have been affected at all.

The cynical side of me says that nothing will be done, that Curt is rich enough to be one of the system's "good guys", and his employees will be considered to have brought this on themselves. I hope I'm wrong, but...

Your assertions that Curt's day to day life has been unaffected and that he is still rich are both wrong. This has been written about in great detail in the press...both from people who gloat about it and people who sympathize for him. He did an interview on ESPN (also his current employer) where he admitted that he was broke as well.

He screwed up, but portraying him as the rich guy that walked away untouched is not correct.

Cutter wrote on Sep 28, 2012, 22:39:This simply isn't a blame game. Someone somewhere was responsible for fucking up and that person is likely Curt.

You say it isn't a blame game and then proceed immediately to blame Curt directly. It was a *high risk* investment on the part of the state government. The state government obviously wants to save face and not face the consequences of their greed that blinded them.

At the very least, someone lied about taking care of mortgages and moving expenses for the employees, you know, the folks that were assured their old houses were taken care of. It may not be a criminal matter (or it may), but it for damned sure is at least a civil matter. Some of those folks have been ruined financially, while Curt's day-to-day life doesn't appear to have been affected at all.

The cynical side of me says that nothing will be done, that Curt is rich enough to be one of the system's "good guys", and his employees will be considered to have brought this on themselves. I hope I'm wrong, but...

Cutter wrote on Sep 28, 2012, 22:39:This simply isn't a blame game. Someone somewhere was responsible for fucking up and that person is likely Curt.

You say it isn't a blame game and then proceed immediately to blame Curt directly. It was a *high risk* investment on the part of the state government. The state government obviously wants to save face and not face the consequences of their greed that blinded them.

Well duh...we have to blame SOMEONE!! Come on. You are taking all the fun out of it. Next you are going to tell us that none of us could possibly know what we are talking about because we didn't work for 38 and we weren't part of the investigation. I mean geez...its all over the news, and the news is always right!

Cutter wrote on Sep 28, 2012, 22:39:This simply isn't a blame game. Someone somewhere was responsible for fucking up and that person is likely Curt.

You say it isn't a blame game and then proceed immediately to blame Curt directly. It was a *high risk* investment on the part of the state government. The state government obviously wants to save face and not face the consequences of their greed that blinded them.

I'm inclined to say Madoff got punished because he stole from influential(rich) people in his scam, and they don't like to look foolish. Everyone knows non-rich people are just stupid, so them getting fucked/robbed/scammed isn't a big deal.

Got to agree with Cutter on this one. When $100m of public money gets flushed, you have at least determine that everything was above board. It's SOP.

@Flatline: For the most part true. Exhibit A: Goldman Sachs. Exhibit B: All the day traders who are complaining that their usual million dollar bonuses are only $100K this year. However, at least Bernie Madoff went to jail.

Cutter wrote on Sep 28, 2012, 22:39:And taxpayers have a right know if their money was pissed away on coke and hookers. This simply isn't a blame game. Someone somewhere was responsible for fucking up and that person is likely Curt.

No crime against stupidity, and that's what Curt is guilty of. Vast amounts of it. It only matters if he lied to get the money, and that's if he lied *illegally*. He sold promises, from the sounds of it, like a politician does. What happens when they break their promises? Not much. People call them flipfloppers. And it embitters a lot of people.

Let this be a lesson: If you're going to commit fraud or scam the government out of money, go big or go home. Once you hit a certain level of crime, the odds of you actually ever doing jail time go down significantly.

Rob 10k from a bank? They'll put you on the FBI's most wanted list.

Rob 10 billion from the economy and crash the EU's economy? You get a bonus.